Certainly there must be more to life than the pursuit of material wealth and the supposed happiness it brings. Certainly there must be a greater purpose in living than to accumulate things and then worrying about losing them. Certainly there must be something to warrant our existence in this life more compelling than pleasing ourselves even at the expense of others. Certainly there must be something missing when the sum and total of living is reflected in bank accounts, degrees on the wall, number of children and grandchildren and how many friends one accumulates through social media. The shallow existence most people call life is nothing more than a pretty flower in the field that is here today and gone tomorrow. People come into this world with nothing and they leave this......

Somewhere buried in the depths of the deepest sea is what is left of sanity, both politically as well as spiritually. What I have witnessed over the past few weeks and months are things I never expected to see in my lifetime. It is as if a huge tide came ashore and took every last bit of rational and considerate thinking out to sea. With each passing day, fewer and fewer people are in a good mood . With each passing day, the pressures being applied to people in the financial and social realms are crushing. Although most keep valiantly try to hang on, it is as if they are fighting a losing battle against forces unseen yet far more powerful than them. I fully understand and am thankful to know that the Bible clearly states that in the last days before Christ's return, the......

Growing up, there were three words or phrases rarely (if ever) spoken in our house. The first one was please . I cannot remember a single time when this word was used except in the same sense as give me a break . Logically, if there is no please there will be no thank you . When presents were exchanged there would be a few thank you , but very few. The third missing word was love . I cannot remember a time, other than when they were old and sick, where the words I love you were ever uttered. My dad was from a generation where it was considered a sign of weakness to talk about love. Thus, I never remember my dad telling me he loved me. He wanted to, but he just couldn't do it. My mom rarely ever talked about love,......

Yesterday marked ten years since my mother passed away. She had lived with us the last year and half of her life and I had been her care-giver for many years. She was just shy of her 88th birthday when she passed. I helped do her funeral and once it was finished, an eight year mom chapter of my life finished with it. It is interesting how our lives are divided into chapters isn't it? Unfortunately the good chapters don't last forever, nor do the bad ones. I believe the different chapters are a reflection of where God has called us and what He has called us to do. I believe many times people do not want to let go of the chapters when God did mighty things and we walked on water daily. I also believe that many times people do not have the patience to endure......

There are two main things that trip up a believer in Christ and cause him to stumble and fall out of the grace wherein we stand. Those two things are legalism and abuse of grace. The First Epistle of Corinthians shows the depravity of thought and action that comes when God's grace is used as a cloak (an excuse for) sin. Galatians shows how legalism strangles the life out of a believer, caught in the never ending battle of trying to subdue the flesh by way of laws and rules. Perhaps near the top of the devil's chain of command are religious spirits who present themselves as the Pharisees of Jesus time and so many of the I'm perfect, you're not people occupying pulpits all around the world. Religious spirits have a way of making you feel inferior,......

Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam Where the Deer and the Antelope play; Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the sky is not cloudy all day. This song, Home on the range , is the official state song of Kansas where I grew up. Never once did I ever question the things said in this song, for I believed it to be true since it was the official state song. How many times have we believed something to be true just because it has the stamp of someone's approval or someone in authority says so? I have never seen an Antelope let alone see one play with a deer. I do know that long ago, buffalo did indeed roam, stampede and otherwise tear up the pastures all through the Great Plains. I find it hard to believe there ever was a time in the West , where......

Crying out from the very depths of the soul, the pain associated with the loss has no equal. When I was about 12 years old, my dad took me and my little dog Blackie out to the VFW to fish and play. About the time we left, Blackie started running in circles and foaming at the mouth. I am sure my dad did not know he had distemper, but he knew we better leave. I remember screaming and crying as we drove off leaving the poor dog alone and soon to die. I languished in a state of emptiness, pain and loss for days. An image forever etched in my mind is when Beth's dog Peggy finally lost her long battle with kidney disease and passed away in late October of 2008. For what seemed like hours, Beth cradled the lifeless body of Peggy in her lap, weeping with a pain no one......

Since I do know how long my arm/hand will cooperate, I thought I should try and compose a blog. The difficult part is that I could compose twenty blogs filled with thoughts and research I have done recently. But, alas, I have to work within the confines of my body and what it is going through on a given day. Yesterday was a horrible day and today appears to be better; let's hope so. It appears that most of my physical problems stem from my congestive heart failure. When it goes into failure mode, I get short of breath, feel very tired, have increased swelling in my legs and abdomen, develop a dry hacking cough, decreased appetitive, am unable to lie flat and above all, show weight gain of 2-3 pounds overnight or 5 pounds in a week. Obviously the heart's ability to pump blood not......

I usually try and write a blog on Sunday, even when I can't on other days. All I can say is there is a conspiracy of some sort afflicting my body that makes writing a blog challenging. I have developed a pronounced shiver or shake in my left arm. This makes it very difficult to write without constantly needing to replace errors. I would appreciate your prayers as always and I will write a normal length blog as soon as I can. I see the doctor on Tuesday about this problem. Thank you for your patience and prayers. Kirk...

We talk a lot about brokenness as believers. The idea of being broken carries many different meanings and in some ways is unique to each person because we are all different. When looking up the definition of brokenness, I was amazed by how man definitions there are of this word. The Encarta Dictionary lists 11 different meanings for brokenness. When one word has so many possible meanings, context determines which one best used. The first definition listed is to be no longer whole -in two or more pieces as in being dropped or struck with something hard. In 1983-84 I was struck by something very hard, resulting in my being broken into many pieces. In the television show NCIS , when Denozzo does or says something very stupid or wrong, Gibbs will slap him on the back......